Google News Optimization

Why It Matters

Google News is a primary news discovery channel reaching hundreds of millions of users daily, and content indexed in Google News is preferentially surfaced in AI-generated news summaries and AI Overviews for news queries. Publishers not optimized for Google News miss both the direct traffic channel and the AI-citation opportunity that comes from being in Google's trusted news source index.

How It Works

Google News indexes content from approved news publishers automatically if technical and editorial requirements are met. Publishers don't apply for Google News directly-compliance with Google's News policies, including original journalism, transparent authorship, and AMP or fast-loading pages, determines automatic inclusion. NewsArticle schema, accurate publication timestamps, and frequent publishing signals help maintain indexation quality.

Use Cases

• Digital news publishers implementing NewsArticle schema to improve Google News indexation
• Branded publishers creating editorial news sections to gain Google News inclusion for industry coverage
• B2B companies publishing original research and industry news to enter Google News for topic authority
• Local news publishers optimizing for Google News local section visibility
• Video news publishers using VideoObject schema alongside NewsArticle for multimedia news indexation

Best Practices

• Implement NewsArticle schema with datePublished, dateModified, headline, author, and image properties
• Ensure article URLs are stable, unique per article, and don't change after publication
• Publish a clear About page, editorial policy, and author bylines meeting Google News transparency requirements
• Update articles with significant new information rather than publishing redundant coverage of the same story
• Implement fast-loading pages or AMP for mobile news delivery speed
• Maintain consistent publishing frequency-Google News rewards publishers with reliable publishing patterns